6.23.11 Brewtown Andy's Family Feedbag: The NBA Draft

Holy crap, do I love the NBA Draft. 

There's nothing about it that's not great.  I enjoy the NBA Draft so much that I once took a day off from the evening shift job I had at the time to watch the draft.  The only downside to this plan was that I didn't take a day off for my wedding anniversary at the end of the month, which I am still slightly paying for to this day.  But it was a good idea at the time, because the NBA Draft is wall to wall entertainment.

First of all, It's the final culmination of the college basketball season.  After spending 4 months watching the rise and fall of various teams, we get to see which NCAA players have done the most work to build the best possible profile to play basketball on the biggest stage at the next level. 

Second, it's 18-22 year old guys, usually well over 6 feet in height, wearing absolutely ridiculous outfits.  Don't believe me?  Check out Minnesota Timberwolves and former Syracuse forward Wesley Johnson at last year's NBA Draft in the picture at the top of Bill Simmons' 2010 NBA Draft Diary.  And he's not even the craziest looking guy in the last 5 years.  Anyone else remember how Joakim Noah dressed on draft night in 2007?  As a Chicago Bulls fan, it's burned into my brain, so now I deliver that pain to you:

The last thing that happens during the telecast that I enjoy is the interactions between the fans live in attendance, NBA Commissioner David Stern, and Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver.  Stern knows that the fans are going to heckle him at the start of the night and is always fully ready to engage them.  The fans' always positive reaction to Silver taking over emcee duties from Stern is consistently fantastic.  And of course, it's always great when draftees come out of the stands to shake either man's hand up on stage.  Andy Katz is already reporting that Morehead State's Kenneth Faried will be in the Prudential Center tonight, but will not be in the green room, so he's our logical candidate for "First Guy Out Of The Crowd."

I'd be remiss in my discussion of my enjoyment of the NBA Draft if I didn't mention how I always enjoy Bill Simmons' Draft Diaries.  This year will be the 15th annual Diary, and while I know that some of them are lost to time forever since they were before his ESPN days, for some reason, I can't track down any of the diaries previous to 2004.  But 2004's Diary is a heck of a piece of writing to look back on now.  For example:

7:37 --The Magic are on the clock with the first pick. If they're smart, they take Emeka Okafor. If they're dumb, they take [Dwight] Howard. It's that simple.

Yep.  The only thing that's actually better than that in retrospect is the 2007 Draft Diary where Simmons spends the entire time freaking out about the Celtics trading for Ray Allen.  I'd pay $5 to watch a webcam of Simmons going back and reading that column now that the Allen trade was the first step to acquiring Kevin Garnett and winning an NBA title.

As of this posting, we're about 4 hours from the intersection of sports, intentional comedy, and unintentional comedy.  I'm going to enjoy every minute of it, and I hope you do too.  Be sure to come back to Anonymous Eagle tonight for a NBA Draft Live Thread!